A special surprise for a special day
by lady-warrioress
Summary: a certain special day is coming. Yume's working on something that will surprise both the Maximals and the Predacons
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Yume was acting strange. When she wasn't seen humming music to herself she could be found in the oddest places doing the oddest things. Yume had been living with the Maximals for a few months now and they'd gotten used to her strange behavior. But now... this was different. The way she was acting seemed very out of character for her. Optimus Primal began to worry. He decided to ask Dinobot about it.

Yume and Dinobot had become good friends since the incidents that had brought her there in the first place. Yume spent more time with Dinobot than any other Maximal. The two had developed a strange friendship that Dinobot didn't take seriously, though he tolerated her.If anyone knew what she was up to, he would.

Optimus found him in his room doing something on his computer. When the former Predacon heard him come in, turned off the machine, and turned to the Maximal. "Yes?" he said, the look on his face seeming to say he didn't want to be bothered.

"Dinobot, there's something I want to ask you about." Optimus said getting right to the point.

The raptor gave him a curious look. "Yes?" he said. "What is it?"

"Yume's been acting strange lately. Do you know why?"

"No."

"No?"

"I do not know why she is acting strange," he said again, turning away from Optimus and switching his computer back on. "I myself have asked her but she will not tell me. She just smiles and says 'you'll see'." he snorted. "I guess we will just have to wait until she is ready to tell us."

* * *

Yume wasn't about to tell anyone what she was up to. She wanted it to be a surprise. She'd recently gotten a look at the calender on the one computer and, though she couldn't read Cybertronian for the life of her, she could read the date which was in English because it was just numbers. The date she'd seen made her realize something. An important day was coming and she was going to be ready for it. She wasn't sure the others would know what she was talking about and she wasn't about to tell them until she had everything ready. The only person she_ had _told was Tigatron who had no idea what she was talking about but was interested and agreed to help her get anything she needed. There was just one problem and she'd voiced it to him. Some of the things she needed were in the Predacon base. She hadn't spent much time taking in the sights when she'd been at the base because her impulse was to get out but she had noticed certain things that couldn't be found at the Maximal base that were needed for what she was planning. 

So she had voiced her problem to Tigatron. He was not too happy about it and refused to take her at first but, after much begging, he'd grudgingly agreed to take her there.

"You are one strange creature," he told her as they headed to the base. Him in beast mode and her riding on his back. "When you'd first arrived you couldn't wait to get out of there and now you want to go back."

"It's not like that," she told him, looking down at his face."I would have preferred not going but the things I need are in the Predacon base. If they had been in _your _base I never would be attempting this or asked you to help me do it."

"Just don't take too long," he said.

That was the _last _thing she was going to do. She hated the Predacon ship and everyone in it. She knew that Megatron would kill her if he ever saw her on it again. She would have to be extremely careful.

The two arrived at the Predacon base without much trouble. "Okay," Yume said, getting off Tigatron and swinging her empty backpack over her shoulder. "I don't know how long I'll be in there. If I'm not back in say a half hour come and get me."

"All right," Tigatron said, glancing around nervously. "Just be careful. If Megatron finds you you know what he'll do."

"I'll be careful," she promised him, before turning and reaching up and touching the bottom of the ship's hull."You don't have to tell _me_ what he'll do if he sees me. I already know." She slowly pulled a piece of metal loose and set it on the ground. Tigatron watched her with interest.

"How did you know that was there?" he asked.

She smiled mysteriously. "I think it's best if you didn't know," she said pulling herself upward. "Can you give me a boost?"

Tigatron went into robot mode and grabbed the girl by her waist, hoisting her into the hole. Once she was safely inside she turned back to him. "Thanks," she said in a low voice. "I'll be back soon. Until then, I think you should go back into beast mode so nobody sees you."

He nodded in agreement and did so. "Good luck," he said watching her turn around and get ready to get moving.

"I'll need it," she said back before he could see her no longer.

* * *

Megatron was totally oblivious to Yume's plans as was everyone else in both fractions. He wouldn't even find out she was in the base until he ran into her sometime later. At the moment he was in his room, leaning back in his chair with his chin propped up on his left hand as he snored loudly. Waspinator and Terrorsaur could hear the noise through the wall as they walked down the hall and past his room. 

Terrorsaur scrunched up his face and stuck a finger in his audio receptors. "It's bad enough we have to put up with him when he's awake, now when he's sleeping too?!" he complained. "A person can only stand so much."

Waspinator laughed. "What's wrong?" he asked. "Doesn't Terror-bot like hearing Megatron snore?"

"No," Terrorsaur replied annoyed. "And_ you _can't either."

"What makes Terror-bot say that?"

Terrorsaur pointed at him. "You got something sticking out of the sides of your head," he answered. Waspinator guiltily took the stuff out of his hearing receptors.

Terrorsaur laughed at the face he made when he heard Megatron's snore only ten times louder.

* * *

Yume, who was crawling through the vents above their heads, heard the conversation. She put a hand over her mouth to stifle her giggles. _Megatron is snoring pretty loudly, though, _she thought, as another snore made the vent vibrate. _Maybe he won't hear me when I got into his room later._One of the items she needed was in the Predacon leader's quarters. _But how am I going to get inside with those two standing in front of it? _she wondered. _Maybe I should go away and come back later. Maybe by then they'll be gone. _

Terrorsaur and Waspinator weren't planning on moving anytime soon. They were arguing about Megatron and how loud he was.

"He's loud when he's awake," Terrorsaur was saying. "and he's loud when he sleeps. No matter what he does he's loud."

"Terror-bot should not say such things about Megatron," Waspinator said. "Megatron might hear you."

Terrorsaur folded his arms. "So what if he does?" he asked. "Is he going to punish me for calling him loud."

"Waspinator thinks so," the wasp said nodding.

Terrorsaur frowned. "Well whatever," he said. "He's _still_ loud."

"Well Waspinator won't argue with that."

Yume giggled as the vent vibrated again. She decided to get the item later. Maybe by the the Predacon fliers and Megatron would be gone. With that thought in mind she crawled away.

* * *

Optimus soon realized the human girl wasn't in the base. Worry began to grow inside him and he started asking around. Nobody else had seen her, not in the base or leave, not even Rhinox who spent most of his time in the control room. 

"Then _where _is she?" the Maximal leader asked. "Did she go somewhere? Is she hiding?"

"I dunno, boss monkey," Rattrap said, leaning back in his chair by one of the computers. "But she's been acting so strange lately. Do you think she thinks we're her enemies or something or she's homesick?"

Optimus didn't think so. The girl had once thought that, when she'd first arrived but that was a long time ago and she was now comfortable with everyone in the base, even Dinobot whom she'd developed a pretty close friendship with, though he still thought of her as nothing more than a nuisense. Or at least he acted like that in front of everyone. Optimus wasn't sure if it was an act or that's how he really felt. He wasn't about to ask. She might be homesick but she chose to stay with them and, if she changed her mind, she could just use the thing that brought her there to send her back.

Optimus just hoped that she hadn't gone outside. It had started to snow and he didn't want her getting caught in a blizzard. "I hope she's just hiding somewhere," he said to himself.

Rhinox heard him and turned around in his chair. "I don't think she is in here," he said. "I scanned the ship for any organic life forms and it said there was none."

"That doesn't mean anything," Rattrap said putting his hands behind his head like a pillow. "She coulda fallen into a stasis pod and became a transformer like us."

"Stasis pods don't work that way," Optimus informed the smaller robot. "She's an organic being already. If she fell into one she wouldn't be changed even if it scanned another organic being. She's not a robot.Where did you get such an idea?"

"I dunno." Rattrap said shrugging. "It just seemed logical."

"_Illogica_l," Rhinox said flatly.

"Hey!"

"Enough," Optimus said, waving it off. "We need to find her. I'll send Cheetor and Airazor out to find her." he started out of the control room to look for the two Maximals. "Hopefully they'll be able to find her before she freezes to death."

* * *

Yume was far from freezing to death. Inside the Predacon bse the weather was warm and toasty. Maybe a little too warm for her liking but warm none the less. She didn't think about it too much, though. She was too busy going from room to room, looking for the items she needed. As she did she discovered some interesting facts about the Predacons. Like Terrorsaur's claustrophobia and fear of the dark, Scorponok's case of paranoia, and Blackarachnia's vanity. 

She giggled in amusement as she grabbed random things from the rooms and climbed back into the vent. So far she hadn't run into anybody and for that she was grateful but she started to wonder where everyone was. _Probably quarilling about something. _she thought, climbing into the vent after she'd taken an item from Inferno's room.

* * *

Well she was half right. Terrorsaur had gone into his room to get something and found it gone. He immediately assumed somebody had stolen it. He stalked out of the room and railed on the first person he saw, which happened to be Waspinator who'd followed him. "All right, Waspinator!" he shouted, putting his one hand on his hip and putting out his other one. "Let's have it." 

The wasp looked at him in confusion. "Have what?" he asked.

"Don't play dumb with me," Terrorsaur growled, grabbing him by the throat. "You know what I'm talking about."

"No, Waspinator doesn't," Waspinator protested, trying to pry Terrorsaur's fingers off his neck. "Waspinator has no idea what Terror-bot is talking about."

"My lights," Terrorsaur growled.

"What lights?"

"The extra lights I had in my room. Where are they?"

"Waspinator doesn't know. Waspinator doesn't need lights." he smirked. "Waspinator isn't afraid of the dark, unlike Terror-bot."

"Shut up!" Terrorsaur shouted. "I can't help that I'm afraid of the dark!"

"And claustrophobic," Waspinator added.

"At least I'm not paranoid," Terrorsaur shot back. He also smirked. "At least I don't think the universe hates me!" then he added with mockery. "At least I don't sleep with a teddy bear."

"Terror-bot leave Bear-bot out of this!" Waspinator shouted, starting to lose his temper. "Bear-bot is not part of this conversation."

Terrorsaur laughed mockingly. "Bear-Bot?" he asked. "Is that his name?" he rolled his optics. "How _original!"_

"Shut up!"

* * *

From a room close by Yume had to force herself to not bust out laughing. Even with metal walls separating herself from them she could still hear their conversation as if echoed off the metal walls and down the hall. _Bears? Hehehe. Don't worry Terrorsaur, I'll have your lights back to you when I'm done with them. _

She reached onto a shelf for an item she needed just as the door to the room whooshed open. Her head snapped toward the door. Her mouth fell open at who she saw. Tarantulas stood in the doorway, gaping at her. For a moment neither reacted.

"You!" the spider shouted, the first to snap out of it. "What are you doing in_ here_!?"

Instead of answering Yume, who still had a great fear of Tarantulas, because he'd tried to experiment on her, screamed and swung her half filled pack clocking him smartly on the head with it. When he fell onto the floor she ran past him and into the hall. "INTRUDER!" the mad scientist shouted, recovering quickly and pulling out his gun and running into the hall.

Waspinator and Terrorsaur heard the scream and came running. They arrived as Tarantulas room just as he was coming out of it. The three bot's collided and fell to the floor in a tangle of arms and legs.

"Idiots!" Tarantulas shouted, trying to untangle himself from the other bots. "What are you doing here?"

"We heard you screaming and came to see what was wrong," Terrorsaur said defensively as the three bots untangled themselves and stood up. "Now what's _wrong_?"

"That Maximal's pet was in my room!" he explained.

"Pet?" Terrorsaur said, frowning and cocking his head. "Since when did the Maximals have a pet?"

"The human girl!" the spider shouted angrily, gesturing with his claws. "She was in my room stealing from me!"

The two fliers looked at each other. "The human girl?" Terrorsaur said. "But how could she get in? We would have seen her."

"I don't know," Tarantulas said. "But she was in here and she was stealing from me." he glared at the two. "We must find her before she gets away."

"Where'd she go?"

Tarantulas angrily pointed down the hall. "THAT WAY!" he shouted. He started running. "Come on!"

The other two Predacons looked at each other, shrugged, and ran after him, not sure if they believed him or not.

Not too far down the hall Yume was leaning against the wall, trying to catch her breath. For the time being she'd gotten away from Tarantulas but knew if she stayed around too long she'd run into him again. _But I can't leave yet, _she thought. _I haven't gotten a chance to get into Megatron's room yet and I need that-_

Just then a voice shouted. "There she is!"

She looked over her shoulder and saw three Predacons running at her.

_Oh boy.. _she sprinted away before they got too close.

* * *

From Megatron's room he heard the sound of the confusion outside. Annoyed, he got out of his hot tub and stepped into the hall. "What's going on?" he demanded. 

A second later a pale figure with long black hair came flying down the hall toward him. Before he knew what was happening his rubber ducky was ripped unceramoniously out of his hand. "What?" he gasped, staring at his now empty palm.

Yume dashed down the hall and disappeared into another room. Megatron watched her go and then started after her. He took one step then was plowed into by three other bodies. All four crashed to the floor.

He stared into the guilty faces of Waspinator, Terrorsaur, and Tarantuals."GET OFF ME, YOU IDIOTS!" Megatron shouted.

The other three robots scrambled off of him and stood up, looking nervous. Megatron stood up and glared at them. "What were you doing?!" he demanded.

"Chasing the human girl," Terrorsaur replied, He spotted the girl peeking out of the room she'd dashed into. When she saw him looking she took off. "There!" he exclaimed, pointing. "There she goes!"

Megatron turned his head and spotted her go around the corner and disappear. "I see that, yes," he answered. He looked back at the other Predacons. "What is she doing here?"

"We don't know," Tarantuals replied.

"She's stealing from us!" Terrorsaur answered, his perfect features grimacing in annoyance. "She stole the lights that I had in my room!"

Megatron glared at him then turned and pointed. "Get her!" he shouted. "And bring back my duck!"

The three other Predacons each gave him a funny look before chasing after the thieving girl. Megatron watched them go, his arms folded as he brooded. _Stupid flesh creature! How __**dare **__she steal my duck! What's she even doing here? I bet Primal sent her. He sent her here to steal from me! _he growled. "He's not going to blackmail me about that duck! No sir!" For a moment he didn't move and then he started getting the feeling that the others would mess things up as usual. "I'd better go too," he muttered, stalking after them. "Just in case they mess up, yesss."

* * *

Yume was well ahead of the Predacons chasing her. Unlike them she knew where she was going. She'd gotten everything she needed now all she needed to do was get back to Tigatron and get out of there before the Predacons caught her. "Almost there," she said out loud as she ran, slinging her pack over her shoulder. "Just a few more feet." She heard the pounding off footsteps behind her. Glancing over her shoulder she saw that Megatron had also joined the chase. "Oh man... I gotta get out of here before he starts shooting." 

Not too far ahead was her way out. A new burst of energy made her run faster. She reached the entrance and jumped off the platform, landing securily on Tigatron's back, waking him from a nap. He gasped in surprise at the sudden weight and looked over his shoulder. Seeing her back he began to ask how her luck had been. She cut him off with. "Go! Gogogogogo!"  
The urgency in her eyes got him moving. Sprinting forward he ran quickly away from the base. Just as the four Predacons reached the entrance Tigatron and his passenger disappeared down the side of the mountain. "No!" Megatron shouted, shooting after them. "No!" he looked at Waspinator and Terrorsaur. "Go after them! Find out what they're doing and BRING BACK MY DUCK!"

The two fliers nodded and flew off, chuckling madly to themselves.

The Predacon leader glared after them. 'I don't see what's so funny, no," he muttered. Once they were gone Megatron turned around, knocking Tarantuals out of his way and stomped into the base. "I don't know what Primal's up to but I'm going to find out." he set off to the control room, thinking of all the things he was going to say to the Maximal once he got in contact with him. "Primal will not blackmail me, no!"

* * *

Optimus was more than a little surprised when Megatron contacted him a short time later and started ranting about girls, ducks, and blackmail. "I honestly don't know what you're talking about," the Maximal said. "I didn't even know she went out." 

"Don't lie to me, Primal!" Megatron snapped, in no mood for stupid excuses. "I know you sent her here! You might think it's funny but I don't! I want my duck back!"

"What are you talking about?" Primal asked, gaping at him. "What duck?" He got his own theory. "Wait a minute. You didn't reprogram a stasis pod did you?"

"Don't be ridiculous!" Megatron shouted. "What would give you such a stupid idea?"

"Well you said you wanted your duck back and I thought you might have-"

"No! There are no Predacon ducks here!" The Predacon roared. "I mean _my_ duck! I want it back!"

"What does this duck look like?"

"It's yellow with black and white stripes on it."  
"Eh?"

Just then Dinobot came into the room. He heard the description and commented. "Yellow, white, and black? That's Megatron's rubber ducky is it not?"

Optimus stared at him. "Rubber ducky?" he asked, gaping at one Predacon then the other. "RUBBER DUCKY?!" Try as he might, he couldn't hold in his laughter. "HAHAHAHAHAAA!" he burst out, pounding the control panel with his fist.

Megatron glared at Primal as the Maximal nearly fell off his chair in hysterics. "It's not funny, no," he said. He noticed Dinobot smirking. "Get out of here, Dinobot. I wasn't even talking to you."

"But this is very... entertaining," the raptor said. "Why are you asking about your duck anyway?"

"That human pet of yours stole it!" Megatron answered. He pointed at the raptor. "I know you put her up to it."

"I do not know what you are talking about."

Primal got ahold of himself and looked back at Megatron. "If you're so upset about it I'll ask her about it when she gets back," he promised.

'You'd better!" Megatron shouted and the screen went blank.

* * *

As Yume and Tigatron neared the Maximal base, the human girl began to notice a drop in the temperature and it was starting to snow. She looked into the sky, watching the silent flakes fall to the earth. She smiled. _Soon. Pretty soon. I'm glad the weather is on my side. _

Tigatron noticed her silence. "Is there something wrong?" he asked.

"No," she replied, shaking her head. "Everything is fine. I'm just thinking about something."

"I hope it's about those things you stole from the Predacons," Tigatron said, his voice telling her he didn't approve of what she'd done. "You know Megatron isn't very happy about it. I have a feeling he might have told Optimus what you were up to."

"If he did I'll have to explain myself," she said, thoughtfully.

"Wouldn't it be best?" he asked. "Shouldn't you let them know what's going on?"

"I can't," she said, shaking her head. "Not now. I still have some things I want to get done first. When I get everything together _then_ I'll tell them."

"How are you going to avoid telling them if he confronts you?"

"I'll just have to keep him from doing so," she answered.

He looked over his shoulder at her, curious. "How?"

She smiled mysteriously. "You'll see..."

_A/N_

_And what is the point of all of this? Well you'll just have to wait to find out. XD I'm going to try to make this one short. I need to get it all finished before a certain date. Hopefully I won't get writers block. This fic is not the sequel to the fic "Bodyguard" I'm just writing it with the character from that story for the fun of it. It's more like a special feature. XD _


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

Yume didn't go into the_ Axalon _with Tigatron. When they reached the base the girl climbed off of his back and darted away, laughing and prancing around in the falling snow like some kind of air head. Tigatron watched her for a moment, smiling at her antics then got in contact with Rhinox to let him know he'd returned and wanted him to lower the elevator. Rhinox complied and activated the lift. Tigatron climbed onto it and rode it into the ship, alone.

Optimus Primal nearly tackled him the moment he entered the ship. "Tigatron!" he exclaimed, running up to the tiger transformer. "Where in Primus have you been?"

"Uh... busy," the tiger said, going into robot mode and stepping off the elevator. "I had something I needed to do." Optimus seemed satisfied with that answer, because he knew Tigatron was a bit of a loner and did things by himself a lot, but asked. "Have you seen Yume?"

"Not at the moment," Tigatron said truthfully. "Why?"

"I need to ask her something," Optimus replied, folding his arms. "It's important. If you see her at all let her know."

"All right," the other agreed, nodding. "But I might not see her any time soon."

Primal gave him a curious look. "What do you mean by that?"

"I just got this feeling, that's all."

Optimus looked like he wanted to question the tiger further but Tigatron politely excused himself and retreated down the hall before his boss could utter another word. Optimus watched him go. _He knows something. I can tell. _

* * *

Yume finished playing in the snow and decided to head inside. Because she didn't want to be spotted she found another way into the Maximal base. She did her best to avoid everyone, knowing that whoever might see her would ask questions. Luckily everyone seemed to be elsewhere and she quickly arrived at her destination. She reached Dinobot's room and sneaked inside. She looked cautiously around herself, making sure he wasn't in there and then started searching for his sword. 

She knew he sometimes left it in his room when he knew he wasn't going to be going anywhere and she hoped this was one of the rare times when he did. Luck was with her. The sword was lying on his desk, next to his computer that had a screensaver of what looked like two moons orbiting a metallic planet covered in lights. She stared at the screensaver a moment, thinking how pretty the planet looked then remembered why she was there and quickly grabbed up the sword then sneaked quietly (or as quietly as she could since she was dragging that heavy sword) out of the room, making sure nobody was coming before she did so.

Once she was out of view she sighed in relief and headed back the way she had come.

* * *

Terrorsaur and Waspinator had run into the same snow storm that Tigatron and Yume had run into and lost sight of them in the falling snow. "Where'd they go?" Terrorsaur asked, trying to peer through the flakes for the two retreating figures. 

"Waspinator doesn't know," Waspinator said, flying beside him. "But Waspinator is getting falling water frozen in Waspinator's joints. Waspinator is having a hard time moving." and just as he said this his wings stopped flapping and down he went. "AHHH! HELP WASPINATOR!"

Terrorsaur stopped and watched as his wingmate fell out of view and was lost in the blizzard. "Waspinator?" he called. When he recieved no answer he dived after the other Predacon. "Waspinator!"

He soon spotted the other transformer as he got close to the ground. Waspinator had fallen into a snowdrift and all that was sticking out was his legs. Terrorsaur rolled his optics and landed a short distance away. "For the love of Primus," he said reaching out and grabbing his wingmates legs. "Why do you always have to do something like this?" he yanked hard on the other Predacon and out he came. Terrorsaur lost his balance and fell over, Waspinator landing on top of him.

"Get off me!" he shouted, shoving his wingmate to the ground.

"Oh..." Waspinator moaned, frozen and unable to move. "Why universe hate Waspinator?"

"The universe doesn't hate Waspinator," Terrorsaur snapped, reaching down and picking up the other flier. "But_ I'm _starting to."

* * *

Dinobot headed back to his room after he was finished with helping Cheetor with something. The moment he entered his room he knew something was wrong. It didn't take very long for him to realize his sword was missing. "Vermin..." he growled. He did a 180 and stalked out of his room. 

It didn't take him very long to find Rattrap, who was play solitar on the one computer in the control room. The raptor grabbed the back of his chair and spun it around so Rattrap and him were face to face. "All right, vermin," he growled. "Where is it?"

Rattrap stared not knowing what the other robot was talking about. "Where is_ what_?" he asked.

"My sword, you filthy vermin!" Dinobot snapped, pounding the desk beside the chair.

"Your_ sword_?!" the smaller Maximal said, totally confused. "What would I want with your sword? I have a gun. I don't need no pot sticker."

"Then _where_ is it?"  
"How should I know? It don't belong to me," Rattrap kicked Dinobot away from him and turned his chair around. "Maybe you should ask someone else. Now if you would excuse me. I have something important I was doing."

Dinobot glared at the back of Rattrap's head for a moment, battling with the temptation to give it a good whack, then another conclusion came to him and he turned away from the rat, heading toward the elevators.

* * *

Yume walked rather awkwardly toward the pine forest, dragging Dinobot's sword all the way, leaving a long, deep groove in the freshly fallen snow. She never realized just how heavy Dinobot's sword really was, the way he wielded it made it looked so light. She tried her best to ignore the strain on her arms and focused all her energy on getting to the forest with all those pine trees. 

_We need a tree, _she thought. _It won't be the same without a tree. _

She entered the forest and stopped for a moment, taking in all the pine and fir trees. _Now to find the perfect one. _Her gray eyes settled on a young pine, not quite full grown yet. _Ah hah! Perfect!_

She drug the sword toward the tree then gave it a once over once she was closer. "Yes," she said, lifting the sword the best she could. "This one will do."

She tried to take a swing at it but something held the sword back. She stared at the sword, wondering why it wasn't moving. Her eyes followed the length of the blade and focused on two very red, very angry, orbs staring back at her. "Dinobot!" she gasped, dropping the sword and stepping back.

He stared at her mildly then looked at his sword and at the tree she'd almost chopped down. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"I'm trying to chop down that tree," she replied, pointing at the pine behind her.

"With my_ sword_?" he shouted, sounding like he couldn't believe what he'd just heard. "You cannot use my sword to chop down trees! It is a battle blade! It was not forged to chop down trees!"

"Sorry," she said, getting the feeling that she'd offended him. "But you're the only one who has a blade. I couldn't possibly chop down a tree with a gun. It could make it catch fire."

"Why are you even chopping down trees?" he asked. He pointed his sword at her, shaking it up and down. "You are lucky I'm the one who saw you doing this. If it had been Tigatron he would have been very angry."

She looked away, not really wanting to explain herself. "Well..."

"Well what?" he snapped, still upset about her trying to chop down trees with his blade.

She had to tell him. "I was trying to chop down a Christmas tree," she replied.

Dinobot stared at her like she'd just sprouted a second head. "A Christmas tree?!" he exclaimed. "What in the inferno is a Christmas tree?!"

"Well," she said, putting her two index fingers together. "It's a tree that people put up and decorate with all kinds of special items called ornaments. Usually a star or angel gets put on the top but sometimes people put other things on it like flags."

Dinobot just stared at her. In all the research he'd done on earth he'd never read anything about what she was talking about. "You are lying," he said.

"I am not lying!" she exclaimed. "I _know_ what I'm talking about. My family celebrates Christmas every year. It is the only time of the year when things feel normal." she clenched her fists, her gray eyes challenging him. "Why would I lie about a thing like that?"

He didn't know and he wasn't sure he cared. He eyed her then the tree she'd almost chopped down, trying to figure her out. Christmas trees. What a load of nonsense. He snorted. "I still do not believe it," he said.

She sighed. "This is why I didn't tell anyone what I was doing," she said, rubbing her arm. "Because I knew you wouldn't believe me."

"I have never heard of such a thing."

"I'm not surprised," she said, folding her arms. "You are a robot who lives on a robot planet. Though I still don't understand how robots can live on a planet I can understand why you've never heard of Christmas. Why would robots believe in Santa anyway? Or the Christmas story about Mary and Bethlehem? You don't need it. It's not important to you, but-" she stopped.

He gave her a curious look.

"But this means a lot to me," she blurted. "These are _my _traditions and I won't miss them this year."

"What are you talking about?"

She walked up to him. "It was going to be a surprise," she replied. "I can't tell you anymore. I don't want you to know until I'm done." she glanced forlornly back at the tree. "I guess I'll have to find something else to decorate."

"You won't be 'decorating' _anything_," he said, grabbing her arm. "You are coming back to the _Axalon_ and explaining to everyone what you have been up to."

She forced her arm out of his grip. "No," she protested. "I can't go back yet. I still have things to do."

He glared at her, baring his fangs. "Stop being stupid. You are done. You have no reason to be doing what you are doing. It has no point to it."

"There is so a point to it!" she shot back, her eyes flashing angrily. He wasn't used to her getting angry didn't have a comeback. "and until I get everything done I'm not going back."

"It is snowing," he said simply after a moment of silence. "You are not dressed for this kind of weather. I might not know much about humans but I do know that cold weather affects them pretty badly. If you stay out here much longer without anything to keep you warm you will freeze."

"I'm not cold," she lied, ignoring the wave of cold air that washed over her. "I don't have time to be cold." she pointed a finger at him. "Don't use that as an excuse for me to go back. I have stuff I need to do."

"I know," he replied. "You already said that."

"Oh," she lowered her finger and turned from him. "I'm still not going back yet." she started walking away.

He watched her go for a few seconds, weighing options and descitions. Finally he made up his mind and followed. She heard his footsteps behind her. "What?" she asked, turning slightly to face him.

"I do not know why I am doing this but I think I should go with you," he said, not looking at her. "Maybe I can help."

She eyed him a moment then shrugged. "Okay."

* * *

Terrorsaur and Waspinator had gotten lost. They wound up in the forest where Dinobot and Yume had been conversing. They'd heard the whole conversation. "Christmas?" Terrorsaur said, looking at an equally confused Waspinator. "What the slag is Christmas?" 

"Waspinator doesn't know."

"It must be some kind of plot the Maximals are thinking up to defeat us," Terrorsaur concluded after thinking a moment. "It's a code name."

"Lizard-bot didn't seem to know what it was either."

"He's just trying to fool us," Terrorsaur said, smartly. "He knew we were listening in and that's why he said that." Waspinator just stared at him, not sure if he should believe that statement or not. Terrorsaur had been acting weird a lot lately.

Terrorsaur, ignoring Waspinator's confused expression, contacted Megatron. "Come in Megatron," he said, speaking into his intercom. "This is Terrorsaur."

The first words Megatron said was. "Haven you got my duck back yet?" in a very impatient voice.

"Uh no," Terrorsaur said, holding back his laughter. "But I did find the girl. She doesn't have your duck." he added quickly.

"Then why are you contacting me?" Megatron demanded and Terrorsaur heard splashing in the background._He's in that slagging hoot tub again._ "I don't want to hear from you until you have my duck back!"

Terrorsaur pressed forward anyway. "Well, I thought you might be interested in something I overheard," the Predacon flier said.

Megatron calmed down and asked, sounding not too curious. "What did you overhear?"

"I heard the human and Dinobot talking about something called Christmas," he replied.

Megatron sounded geniunely confused. "What is Christmas?"

"I don't know," Terrorsaur replied. "But my guess is that it might be something the Maximals are planning. Some kind of Maximal plan to get rid of us."

"And it's called _Christmas_?"

"It could be a code name."

"Codename for what?"

"I don't know."

"Then find out!" Megatron shouted. "and don't contact me again until you have!" He cut the connection.

Terrorsaur sighed and turned to Waspinator. "Let's go," he said. "Megatron wants us to find out what they're up yo."

"Oh.. but Waspintor doesn't want to follow Lizard-bot and Fleshy-bot around," Waspinator whined.

"Too bad," Terrorsaur said, reaching down and yanking his wingmate to his feet. "Orders are orders and we wouldn't want to make Megatron mad now would we?" Waspinator shook his head. "Good now let's get going."

* * *

Dinobot followed Yume around the forest as she collected random items from the trees and ground. So far she'd collected numorous pine cones which he'd wound up carrying and now she was working on a holly plant. He was beginning to think this thing called Christmas was one weird holiday if someone needed to chop down trees and collect pine cones and holly for it. He was also getting impatient. 

"Are you done yet?" he asked, irritably.

"Almost," she said, cutting off more holly. "After I get this we'll head back to the base. Things won't be the same without the tree but at least I'll have holly."

He sighed and waited for her to finish. When she was done she turned to him, shoving the holly sprigs into her pants pockets. "I'm done,' she said. "We can go back now."

_Finally! _He went into beast mode. She shied back a bit, still not very comfortable with that mode of his. He glared at her, feeling impatient. "Get on," he ordered.

Getting over her fear, she did so, walking over to him and climbing onto his back. He waited until she was fully situated then took off, heading back to the_ Axalon. _

Neither noticed the Predacon fliers following close behind.

"When we get back you are going to tell them," he said as they walked through the falling snow. She started to protest but he cut her off. "You _must_ tell Optimus. He has to explain this whole situation to Megatron who you stole from. Either _you_ tell him or _I'll_ tell him."

She sighed and gave in. "Fine," she said. "I'll tell him."

* * *

"What?!" Optimus Primal stared at Yume like she'd just become a robot herself. "You've been doing _what_?" 

"I'm working on something for Christmas," she said again. she'd explained the whole thing to him and the other Maximals but they all acted like she'd lost her mind. "It's in a few days and I don't want to miss it."

"What in Primus is Christmas?" he asked.

"From what I gathered it has something to do with a creature named Santa Clause and a woman who gave birth to her son in a barn," Dinobot said not very helpfully.

Yume turned around and gave the former Predacon a look. "Saying it that way ruins the whole feel of the season," she snapped.

He didn't bother apologizing. She ignored him and turned back to Optimus. "It's better than Dinobot makes it sound," she informed him. "He doesn't know what he's talking about."

"Either way I don't understand what Megatron's duck has to do with this 'Christmas'."

"That's a surprise," she told him. "I can't tell you that much."

"Can you at least tell me where it is?"

"I have it," she replied. "I'll give it back to him when I'm done."

"You'd better," he said. "Megatron isn't very happy about it. He thinks I put you up to it."

"Well I'll tell him what's going on," she promised. "But not now." she looked at the rest of the Maximals who'd been listening with confused looks on their faces. "Now that you all know can you help me?"

"Not until ya tell us what this Christmas is," Rattrap said.

She sighed. "Fine," she said. "I'll explain."

She held up her sketchpad, which she'd taken out of the room she shared with Airazor and flipped through it, stopping at a picture of a tree decorated with strange looking orbs. "This is a Christrmas tree," she explained. "During Christmas time people buy and decorate many trees like this with lights, and garlin, and glass balls."

"Why?" Airazor asked.

"Because it's a tradition," she replied. "On Christmas Eve a man called Santa Clause comes and puts gifts under the tree."

Now Rhinox gave her a look. "Santa Clause?" he said. "Gifts?"

Yume rolled her eyes. This was going to be harder than she thought. Maybe she should go back to the beginning. She flipped through the pad again and stopped at a picture of a woman holding a baby in her arms. She showed them the picture. "Maybe I should tell you this story instead."

* * *

Terrorsaur and Waspinator had followed Dinobot and the girl all the way back to the Maximal base. Too bad for them they couldn't get close because of Sentinal. They got as close as they could but since they'd entered the base they had no idea what was going on. "What I wouldn't give for one of Tarantulas spy bugs right now," Terrorsaur moaned, leaning against a rock and folding his arms. He glared at the snow falling around him. "I hate this time of year." 

"TERRORSAUR!" a voice shouted suddenly before he could complain further.

"GAH!" he exclaimed, slipping off the rock and falling into the snow.

Waspinator ran up to him. "Is Terror-bot all right?" he asked.

"Ugh," Terrorsaur groaned, pushing himself out of the snow. He spoke into his comlink. "What do you want, Megatron?" he demanded.

"Don't talk to me like that!" Megatron snapped.

"Well sorry, Mighty One," Terrorsaur said sarcasticly. "Now what do you want?"

"Have you found out anything new about this Christmas plot?"

"No," Terrorsaur replied, rolling his optics and glancing toward the Maximal base. "and I don't have your duck yet so don't even ask."

"Well why not?"

"Because they went into their base and the shields are up and their guns are online," the pteradactle replied. "How do you expect us to find out _anything_ if we can't even get near the base?"

"Think of something!" and he cut the connection.

"Yeah, like what?" Terrorsaur asked nobody. "I can't exactly sneak into the base if I can't even get _near _it!"

Waspinator was staring at him like he'd lost his mind. "Is Terror-bot all right?" he asked again.

"I'm fine," he replied, looking at his wingmate. He folded his arms. "But I don't think Megatron is. He wants us to get into the base. How does he expect us to do that?"

"Attack?"

"We can't attack it!"

"Why not?"

"Uh..."

"See, Terror-bot has no reason," Waspinator said grinning.

"Oh, shut up."

* * *

Yume finished telling them the whole story of the origin of Christmas and about Santa Claus but she got the feeling they still didn't understand what she was talking about. They were giving her funny looks, as if they thought she had lost her mind. Finally she sighed and said, using a different direction to get her point across. "It's a family thing. During this time of year my family puts aside their differences and gets together to celebrate this one special day." 

"So you're saying that one this day called Christmas enemies become friends?" Rattrap asked.

She nodded, feeling a little better. Maybe someone was finally getting it.

His neck reaction ruined that thought. He cracked up. "Enemies become friends? On one day?! That would_never _happen! HAHAHAHAHAA!"

She glared at him. "Maybe the Predacons will," she said.

They all stared at her. "You're going to try and get the Predacons to stop fighting us for that one day?" Cheetor asked.

She shrugged. "I wasn't thinking of that but I guess so," she replied.

"Is that why you stole his duck?" Optimus asked.

She giggled. "You'll see," she said then changed the subject. "Well putting the Predacons aside I need a favor. Can you help me decorate this place?"

Rattrap started to ask why but Optimus cut in, realizing that Yume was really excited about the upcoming day. "Sure, what do you want us to do?"

She smiled at him gratefully and explained.

* * *

Terrorsaur had started to doze off when he was awakened by Waspinator shoving him rudely. "What?!" he demanded, glaring at the other flier. 

"Look!" Waspinator exclaimed, pointing.

Terrorsaur turned his head toward the direction of the Maximal base. Two of them, Airazor and Optimus were outside. They were flying around the base and looked like they were covering it with something. The human girl was there as well and she looked like she was giving them some kind of order.

"Well well well," Terrorsaur said, his face lighting up with a smirk. "I wonder what _they're_ up to?"

"Waspinator thinks we should get closer," Waspinator said, already shoving his wingmate forward.

Terrorsaur held himself back, giving Waspinator a look. "Don't push me," he snapped. "I'm trying to listen."

"terror-bot can listen better if we were closer," Waspinator insisted, nearly kicking Terrorsaur forward. "Move!":

Terrorsaur glared at him but got moving. "All right," he hissed. "Stop shoving me. I'm going."

Waspinator looked satisfied with that. The two got moving.

As the two crept closer Terrorsaur began to make out what the human girl was saying. "Just a little higher, a little higher!" she paused then said. "Airazor, your side is sagging."

Airazor paused a moment then raised her end higher. "That's it! Right there!" Yume said sounding satisfied.

"What are the Maximals doing?" Waspinator asked Terrorsaur, once the two were hiding behind a rock that was much closer.

"I don't know," he replied, watching the two Maximal fliers lift something. "But it looks like they're putting something on their base." Squinting he tried to get a better look at what it was. A second later he gasped. "Hey, those are the lights from my room!"

"The Maximals are putting Terror-bot's lights on their base?" Waspinator asked, confused. "Why would the Maximals do that?"

Terrorsaur didn't know but he wasn't going to let them get away with it. Lifting his gun he started to step out of their hiding place. He didn't get very far. Hands reached out and grabbed both Predacons by the backs of their necks, yanking them off the ground and out from behind the rock.

_A/N_

_Christmas is a very hard topic to explain to people who have never heard of it. Of course robots are much harder to explain to than humans. Confusion is a fun emotion to write about. Don't ask why. Terrorsaur and Waspinator are a funny duo to write about. Terrorsaur's all serious and Waspinator's a bit child like. I enjoy writing about them._


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"What do we have here?" a familiar voice said as Waspinator and Terrorsaur hung from the taller robots grip like beef slabs, their feet not even touching the ground. "Two Predacon spys!"

Terrorsaur twisted his head back to see who had grabbed them. Dinobot glared back at him, his red optics showing an unreadable but dangerous expression. "Uh oh," the Predacon flier gulped.

"You had better have an good excuse on why you are here, old comrades," the raptor said.

Yume heard the voices and turned away from what she was doing. She spotted Dinobot standing by a large rock, holding two smaller figures. "What is it, Dinobot?" she called to him.

He walked forward, taking the two Predacons with him. "Look what I have found," he said, holding the two up high like trophies. "Predacons."

Everyone stopped what they were doing and went to Dinobot and his captives. "What are_ they _doing here?" Airazor asked, eyeing the fliers.

"I believe they were spying on us," Dinobot told her. He shook the two. "I wonder why."

"It's likely that Megatron sent them here," Optimus replied, glaring at the two unfortunate fliers. "I wonder why."

"We know what you're up to!" Terrorsaur blurted out, pointing a finger in their faces. "We know all about your Christmas plan!"

The three stared at him. "Our Christmas plan?" Yume said, blinking once. "What do you mean by that and how do you know about Christmas anyway?" she looked at the Maixmals. "Have you all been lying to me? Do you know about Christmas? How could you be so cruel and play me like that?!"

"We don't know what Christmas is," Optimus replied. "We don't even celebrate it. I don't know how they know."

Dinobot came up with a simple explanation. 'They must have heard us talking about it."

"Yeah!" Waspinator broke in. "We heard all about your plot! You won't get away with this! Megatron will stop Maximals and female fleshy-bot before you attack us Predacons."

Yume blinked. "Attack you?" She thought about it a moment then burst out laughing.

The two Predacons didn't get what was so funny. "I see no humor in a take over plot," Terrorsaur commented, glaring at the human girl who was bent over and holding her sides as she cracked up.

She quickly got ahold of herself before she corrected him. "We're not trying to take over anything," she replied. "And Christmas isn't a plot either."

"Then what _is_ it?!"

"It's a holiday," she replied.

The two Predacons looked at each other. "A holiday?" they said.

She nodded, still smiling. "Yes," she confirmed. "It's a holiday that happens every year around this time."

"I don't believe that," Terrorsaur said. He pointed a black finger into her face. "You're lying. There's no such thing."

She giggled, shaking her head. "You two are reacting the same way these guys did," she said, waving her hand around to indicate the three Maximals. "Look I'll explain it to you." she looked at Dinobot. "It's getting cold out here. Let's all go inside where it's warm and I'll explain it to them."

Dinobot wasn't sure he liked the idea. "I do not think it is wise for us to bring Predacons into the base," he said. "They might try something."

She ignored him and looked at the two Predacons. Waspinator and Terrorsaur had been the very first transformers she'd encountered when she'd ended up in this time line of earth history. She wasn't scared of them anymore. The two amused her. She smiled at them. Terrorsaur frowned at her. "_What _are you looking at?"

She looked away from them and glanced at the Maximals, especially Primal. "Would it be okay if we brought them inside so I could explain to them?" she asked.

Optimus wasn't sure he liked that idea.

"You can keep them at bay by pointing guns at them if you have to," she added.

He thought it over a minute then nodded. "All right," he conceded. He looked up at Dinobot. "Let's get them inside."

Dinobot grudgingly did what he was told.

* * *

Megatron tried to contact Waspinator and Terrorsaur again. "Terrorsaur! Waspinator!" he shouted into his comlink. "Terrorsaur, Waspinator, answer me right now!" Nothing. "_ANYBODY!"_

The only sound he recieved was silence. "Blast!" he exclaimed, getting out of his hot tub. "Why won't they answer?"

He stalked out of his room. In the hall he nearly ran into Scorponok. Luckily he noticed the second in command in time and stopped. Scorponok noticed his leader glaring at him and wondered what he'd done wrong. "Why are you looking at me like that?" he asked, taking a few steps back. "Whatever it is I didn't do it."  
"I know _you_ didn't," Megatron snapped. "It's got nothing _to do _with _you_."

"Then why are you-"

"Have you recieved any word from Terrorsaur or Waspinator?" he cut him off.

"No," Scorponok replied. "Why?"

"I told them to find out all they could about the Maximal's Christmas plot," Megatron replied, scowling. "I tried to get in contact with them and they won't answer."  
"Maybe they're fighting the Maximals and that's why they can't answer," Scorponok suggested then asked. "_What_ Christmas plot?"

Megatron growled to himself and started walking. Scorponok followed him, still asking. "What Christmas plot?"

"The Maximals have come up with a plot to get rid of us," his commander replied, still walking and not looking at his second in command. Scorponok, being shorter practically had to run to keep up with his leader's long strides. "Terrorsaur and Waspinator overheard that traitor Dinobot and the human girl talking about it."

"Why do they call it Christmas?" the scorpion wanted to know. "What does Christmas mean?"

"I have no idea," Megatron replied. "It's probably a codename."

"For what?!"

"How should I know?!" Megatron snapped. "I tried every combination of words I could think of that that could mean and nothing made any sense."

Scorponok didn't know what to say to that. "So what are you going to do about it?" he wanted to know.

"I won't let them get the chance to do it, no," Megatron replied, determindly. "We'll strike first before they can even put their little Christmas plan into action, yes!"

* * *

Terrorsaur and Waspinator had about the same reaction to Yume's explanation of Christmas as the Maximal's. Only, unlike them, they couldn't hold in their laughter. The two fell over each other in hysterics. 

"Are you telling me that you're decorating the base because some female flesh creature had her flesh spawn in a barn and there's another flesh creature that's as fat as a planet that comes down the chimney and puts presents under a tree?" Terrorsaur asked, holding his stomach plating as he cracked up.

Yume put her hands on her hips, annoyed. "Yes," she said as if the answer was obvious. "And stop saying it that way. The nativity is a lovely story except when you transformers talk about it."

"Either way if some fat flesh creature came down _my _chimney I wouldn't give him the chance to put gifts under my tree," Terrorsaur said, calming down somewhat. "I'd shoot him before his fat boots even touched the carpet."

"You can't_ shoot _Santa!" she exclaimed, her gray eyes widening in horror.

"Well if he broke into my house I would," Terrorsaur folding his arms. "I don't need some fat flesh creature ripping me off."

"Santa won't rip you off," she shot back. "Santa _gives_ not _takes_."

"I doubt some fat fleshy would just come into a house to give. I'm sure he's taken something."

Yume shook her head. "Forget about Santa," she told him. "Do you understand now that this thing called Christmas isn't some kind of plot to kill you Predacons."

"Waspinator would have perfered that," Waspinator commented.

Yume rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Forget it," she said. "You all will_ never_understand. None of you. I don't even know why I'm bothering." She turned from them and stomped out of the room.

The Maximals glared at the Predacons. "What?" Terrorsaur asked.

Aiazor stepped forward and slapped Terrorsaur across the face. "Look what you did," she said. "You upset her."

"So what?" he asked, rubbing his face. Airazor had a harder hit than he thought she did. "It's not like she's_ my _pet."

"She's_ not _a pet," Airazor snapped. "and you had better apologize to her."

"What for?"

"Because this Christmas she is talking about is very important to her," she said, folding her arms. "Just because we don't know what it is doesn't mean we have to make fun of it. At least _we're_ making an effort to understand. You could do the same."

"Why?" Terrorsaur demanded, still rubbing his face. "That human isn't_ my _friend. I don't want anything to do with her."

"Well _she_ wants _everything_ to do with you Predacons."

"What do you mean?"

"This was for both fractions," Rhinox told him, seeing that Airazor was getting very upset explaining. "That's one of the reasons she took those things from your base. She wanted you all to have en excuse to come here. She wanted you all to be involved as well."

"So?"

"She also said she was going to give you Predacons something." Optimus cut in.

Terrorsaur couldn't think of a comeback. The girl wanted to _what?! _"She's crazy," he finally said, shaking his head.

Waspinator seemed interested now. "Female fleshy-bot was going to give Waspinator a present?" he asked. "Nobody has ever given Waspinator a present."

"Waspinator-" Terrorsaur began.

But his wing mate wasn't listening. He stood up and said. "Waspinator would be_ happy _to help!"

Terrorsaur nearly fell out of his chair. He stared at the other flier in horror. "You_ what_?!" he gasped. "You can't be _serious!"_

"Waspinator_ is _serious!" the wasp replied. "If female Fleshy-bot is nice enough to get Waspinator a present, Waspinator should be nice enough to do something for her."

Terrorsaur covered his face with his hand. "Oh brother," he muttered."You're crazy!"

Waspinator ignored him and looked at the Maximals. "What can Waspinator do to help?" he asked.

Rhinox took him aside to explain what Yume wanted done. When they were gone Terrorsaur looked back up to see the others still looming over him. "What?" he demanded, feeling claustrophobic at their closeness.

"Well?" Optimus asked, folding his arms. "You have two choices, Terrorsaur. Either help us or we lock you up."

Terrorsaur sighed, knowing he didn't have any other options. The last things he wanted was to be locked up, in a tiny space.. closing in one him... "I'll help," he said relunctantly.

"Good," Optimus said. "Now go with Rhinox and Waspinator."

Terrorsaur grouchily got to his feet. He stalked away with his fists clenched at his sides.

"When did Yume say she had presents for the Predacons?" Airazor asked taking Optimus aside.

"She didn't," he replied. "But I thought it would be the only way to get them to help, and it worked."

"Ohh..."

* * *

Optimus wanted to surprise Yume. He called Dinobot and Rattrap to him and told them to go out and cut down a tree. The two argued with him a moment, wanting to know what the big deal was and he informed them that it would be a nice gesture. Relunctantly the two left. Dinobot led Rattrap back to the forest, complaining all the way about this being the wrong way to use the sword of a warrior. 

"Aww, quite your complaining, Chopper-face," Rattrap said, annoyed. "It's_ just _a sword."

"It is _not_ just a sword," Dinobot corrected indignantly. "It is an honorable warrior's blade."

"It's also a good ax," Rattrap retorted. He stopped and pointed at the trees. "Now out it to some good use. Chop us down a Christmas tree."

The raptor grumbled bad temperedly to himself as he stalked toward the trees. "Stupid human and her stupid holidays," he muttered.

He stood in front of the tree Rattrap had pointed out and sized it up, trying to figure out the best way to cut it down.

"What are you doing?" Rattrap demanded. "It's a tree not an enemy. Cut it down at the trunk."

"I know that, vermin!" Dinobot shouted then started hacking away at the tree. When he was done the tree was still standing but it had lost all it branches except for the one at the top. Rattrap got one look at it and cracked up. "That's one less tree to spike bunnies," he cackled.

Dinobot glared at him. "Shut up! I'd like to see you do better!"

Rattrap got ahold of himself and walked over to Dinobot. "Give me that," he said, taking the raptor's sword. "That's not how ya do it."

'Then _how _do you do it?"

Rattrap shoved him back. "Watch and learn, Dino-butt," he said. He faced another tree and started chopping at the base of the trunk. "You do it like_ this."_

Dinobot folded his arms and watched sulkily as Rattrap chopped expertly at the tree. A minute later he was done and the hole tree fell to the ground. "There, ya see," he said, turning to the taller robot. "It's not as hard as you make it seem."

Dinobot growled and took his sword back. "Let's just bring it to the base," he snarled.

* * *

Yume was in one of those moods. The Maximals and Predacons were really getting on her nerves. Of course she shouldn't be too surprised that they didn't know what Christmas was but the way they tried to understand it was annoying. "Imagine wanting to shoot Santa Claus," she muttered, scribbling some sketches on her notepad. She was sitting on her bed in the room she shared with Airazor when the female Maximal spent the night in the base, which wasn't really often so most of the time the girl had the room to herself, and brooding about what had happened. "That's one of the _worst _things I've ever heard. That's almost as bad as saying Mary had her baby in a barn. Though that isn't really a lie or anything, it's still really degrading." She shook her head. "All well. I guess I should have expected that." She set down her pad and put it in her back pack. "They are robots from another planet anyway." 

She stepped out of the room. "Well I'd better work on everyone's gifts," she said to herself. 'Maybe that will get my mind off it." and she turned away from the control room and ran in the opposite direction, toward the lower levels of the ship. "I just hope nobody finds out about my _other _surprise."

* * *

Megatron once again tried to get in contact with Terrorsaur and Waspinator but the two had turned off their comlinks so they couldn't be bothered as they helped the Maximal's get the _Axalon_ ready for this holiday called Christmas. This did not help Megatron's mood. "What in the Inferno could they be doing?" he growled, pounding down hard on the arm rests of his chair. "Why won't they _answer_?" 

"Maybe the Maximal's captured them," Scorponok suggested from his spot in front of the main console. He turned around to look at his leader's face."Maybe they've been knocked off line."

Megatron growled then sat there quietly, thinking about it for a few minutes. 'Yes," he said after a long moment. "Yes, that had to be what happened. The Maximal's don't want us know what they're up to so they're going to resort to dirty tricks to keep it that way." he drummed the fingers of his left hand on top of the arm rest of his chair. "Yes..."

Suddenly he stood up. "Scorponok, contact Tarantulas, Inferno and Blackarachnia," he ordered.

"Yes, Megatron," Scorponok said, turning back the screen. "May I ask why?"

"I won't give the Maximals anymore time to put their plan into action, no," he said, walking over to Scorponok and leaning down to look over his second in command's shoulder to look at the screen. "We shall launch a full scale attack."

Scorponok looked over his shoulder and gaped at his commander. "_What_?!" he exclaimed. "We can't do that! They'll have us out numbered!"

Megatron wasn't in the mood for whiny excuses. "Just do what you're told!" he snapped.

"Y-yes Megatron," Scorponok said, turning back to the screen.

Megatron watched his second in command summon the three remaining Predacons. _You're not going to over throw me, Primal, _he thought grimly. _I won't allow you to win the Beast wars, no. I shall win this. I__** will **__win this!_

* * *

All the outside work was finished. The lights were up and running. The snow storm had passed and now only flurries fell from the sky. Dinobot and Rattrap had returned with the Christmas tree and the Maximals and the two Predacons fliers had decorated it with things they'd found around the base and the forest. Terrorsaur still wasn't enjoying anything but Waspinator had gotten into the spirit of things and was having the time of his life. 

"Waspinator likes Christmas," he proclaimed as he put holy sprigs on the tree. "Waspinator wishes it was Christmas all the time!"

Terrorsaur rolled his optics. He'd been saying that for hours. _Oh brother!_

"Eh," Rattrap said, putting some pine cones on the tree. "Maybe that girl has something here."

"So you regret laughing at her then?" Cheetor wanted to know, giving the smaller robot a smirk.

Rattrap shrugged. "I guess so."

A few minutes later they were done. The group stepped back to stare at the tree. It looked pretty good. It even had lights on it thanks to Rhinox.

"I hope she likes it," Tigatron said.

The others, including Waspinator nodded. Terrorsaur still wasn't feeling it. To him the tree looked like a tree just decorated with strange objects and lights. "I don't get it," he commented.

"Neither do we," Cheetor told him. "But it was a nice thing to do."

Terrorsaur shrugged. "Whatever." he turned away from the tree. "It still looks like a dead plant to me."

"Hey!" Rattrap exclaimed, glaring at the Predacon. "At least _try _to pretend you're enjoying yourself."

"Why?" Terrorsaur demanded, looking back at Rattrap. "It's not like it's _important_."

"Aw I hope Santa puts coal in your stocking," Rattrap muttered, turning away.

"I highly doubt it." Terrorsaur sneered. "If he did I'd shoot him."

"Enough," Optimus broke in. "Save the argument for after the holiday. Now shake hands and stop fighting."

The two other robots looked at them. Rattrap shrugged. "Fine, whatever you say, Boss monkey."

Terrorsaur said nothing but dropped the subject anyway.

* * *

Yume was finished. She sighed with relief and collected the gifts up, putting them into her back pack. She also grabbed Megatron's ducky off the work table and set it inside too. Smiling to herself she slung the pack over her shoulder and saundered out of the work room, humming a score of "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" under her breath. 

_Well I might not be having the Christmas I wanted but at least I can give presents to them, even if they don't understand what it all means. _

_A/N_

_I'm determind to get this story done by Christmas so I'm rushing a few things. I hope you don't mind. Making Beast Wars Megatron slightly paranoid is kinda fun. It might not be in character but it makes me laugh none the less. _


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

Yume stepped into the control room and was met with the biggest surprise of her life. There, near the elevator, was the biggest Christmas tree she'd ever see. "What in the world?" she gasped, staring at the pine which was decorated with lights and other thing, some organic others not. "Where did this tree come from?"

"We got it," she heard a voice to her left.

She turned her head and spotted the Maximals as well as the two Predacons fliers standing there smiling at her. Well except for Terrorsaur, he was scowling but everyone was ignoring him. "I hope you like it," Optimus said.

"W-what- I- thank you," she stammered. "but- but when did you get this? _Why_ did you get this?"

"We wanted to do something nice for you," Rhinox replied, putting up his hand. "We felt bad for laughing at your explaination of Christmas and decided to surprise you." he smiled at her warmly. "What do you think?"

She looked back at the tree. "It's," her voice cracked and she felt like crying. "It's beautiful! Thank you so much!" she dropped the back pack on the floor and ran over to give them all a hug. "I never thought you'd all do something like this for me. The way you were acting before... I didn't think you thought I was serious."

"We saw how important this holiday seemed to you and thought we'd surprise you with this," Cheetor explained when she got to him. He hugged her tightly, like a big brother. "I hope you have a good Christmas."

"I will now," she said, slipping out of the embrace. "You're the best, every single one of you."

"When does Waspinator get his present?" Waspiantor asked just then, ruining the mood.

Everyone glared at him. "Waspinator!" they shouted.

"Don't get greedy," Rattrap said.

"It's okay," Yume told him. "He'll get his present soon. " she turned from them and headed back to the tree and her back pack. "I just have to-"

**ALERT! ALERT! PREDACONS IN THE VICINITY!**

"Predacons?" Cheetor gasped. "What are _they_ doing here?" he looked over at Waspinator and Terrorsaur. "You two didn't-"

"No," Terrorsaur cut him off. "We've been too busy to do anything."

"We'd better find out what they want," Optimus said, annoyed at the interruption. Couldn't they have one day go by without the Predacons giving them trouble? Especially _this_ day? He looked at the Maximals. "Let's go." he glanced at the Predacon fliers. "You're coming too. Maybe you can do something about this. I don't trust you two to be left in the base alone."

Yume watched the robots scramble into the elevators. Cheetor gave her an apologetic look as they disappeared outside. "Sorry," he mouthed to her.

She nodded. She was actually relieved that they had been distracted by something. "Now I'll be able to put out their presents," she said, going back to the tree. She knelt down and unzipped her pack. Reaching inside she pulled out a few wrapped packages, making sure she didn't accidently pull out the rubber ducky. She'd hang onto that for awhile longer. She might be able to use it to her advantage later on. _I can't wait to see their faces! _she thought her grin so big she showed her teeth._This is going to be so much fun._

Then she heard the sound of gun fighting. "Or not," she said, getting up. She ran toward the elevator shaft. "I can't let them get into a fight! It will ruin everything!" She calculated the distance of her fall then took a deep breath and jumped down the shaft. "Not today! Not on Christmas!"

* * *

Optimus dodged another blast from Megartron's T-rex head laser. "Megatron!" he shouted at the Predacon leader. "What is this!? What in Primus are you doing?"

"I'm making sure you never put your little take over plot into action, yes!" Megatron shouted at him.

Optimus dodged another blast. "What take over plan?" he asked, honestly not knowing what he was talking about.

'The one you call Christmas," Megatron replied, making a face. "I should have realized that stealing my rubber ducky was only part of a bigger sceme. Well I won't allow it!"

"Christmas isn't a take over plot!" Rhinox shouted then ducked to avoid being hit by Blackarachnia's Cyber venom darts. "It's a holiday!"

"I find that hard to believe," Megatron snapped. "Do you think I'm that_ gulible_?"

"Do ya really want us to answer that?" Rattrap asked.

"Shut up, Rattrap!" Optimus shouted. "You're only making things worse!" he looked back at Megatron. "We're not lying. It is a holiday."

"Yeah right!"

"They're right, Megatron!" Terrorsaur and Waspinator shouted, flying toward their leader. "It's not what you think it is!"

The two grabbed onto him, blocking his view of the Maximals. "Have your minds melted?" he demanded of them as they clung to him. "Get off me! Don't tell me you_believe_ them!"

"But it's true!" Waspinator insisted. "Female fleshy bot told Waspinator and Terror-bot all about it."

"GET OFF ME!" Megatron shouted, grabbing Waspinator and yanking him off. "Why would the human tell you such a thing?"

"Because it's true!" Terrorsaur replied before being grabbed by the neck and yanked away from Megatron's face.

He threw them both to the ground. "You two have lost it," he told them. "I don't know what the Maximals did to you but I'm not about to stand by and let them over throw us."

"But they aren't-" Terrorsaur began.

"Just shut up!" Megatron ordered, looming over them like a giant purple tree. "One more word from either of you and I'll dismember you with my bare ahnds."

The two went silent.

He turned from them. "Now just sit there until we're done," he ordered. "I'll deal with you later." He ran toward the Maximals in a battle charge.

"He's going to be real embarressed when he finds out that he was wrong," Terrorsaur commented as Waspinator nodded.

Inferno was flying around shooting fire balls at all the Maximals. Luckily the Maximals had decided to put the tree up inside otherwise the crazy ant would have torched that first.

"Somebody do something about that nutcase!" Rattrap shouted, ducking to avoid a fireball. "Old Blender-butt's gonna torch something."

"I'll deal with him!" Airazor said, flying toward the pyromaniac.

Yume fell out of the shaft and landed onto the snowy ground just as the falcon girl punched Inferno out of the sky. She watched the crazed ant scream his demonic scream as he plummeted to the ground and landed face first in the snow. The moment he did Dinobot shot him in the rear with his eyes lasers and sent him flying into Scorponok.

"Oh no," the girl, said, watching the battle. "No nonononono. I can't let them do this. Not today!" ignoring the fact that she'd be an easy target she rushed into the battle. "If I can only get to Megatron..." she said to herself.

Nobody really noticed her as she made a beeline for Megatron. Luckily for her Megatron wasn't standing beside anyone and his T-rex head's lasers could only shoot in a straight line. If she could come up on him from the side and grab his arm maybe she could stop him before he hit the lights or any of the Maximals. _Luckily I'm not Santa. If I was nobody here would be getting any presents._

Megatron was close now. She picked up speed but before she reached him Tarantulas suddenly blocked her way. "Well looky here," he said, standing over her and eyeing her as if she was a steak. "A delicious little morsale."

"Get out of my way!" she shouted at him, not in the mood to be scared.

"Huh?" he said surprised by her uncharacteristic reaction. He was used to her screaming and running way.

Before he could figure it all out the girl kicked him in the face. He screamed and fell over, holding his face. She ran past him. "I don't have time for you," she told him as she closed the remaining distance between her and the Predacon leader.

Megatron was just sighting down Optimus to blast him away when he felt a weight on his arm and heard a voice shouting. "Stop! Don't shoot!"

"What?" he turned his head. The human girl was hanging onto his arm. "You!" he shouted, angry and surprised to see her being brazen enough to stop him. "What are you doing?!"

"Stop fighting!" she ordered then looked at everyone else and screamed loud enough to be heard by them all. "EVERYONE OF YOU! STOP FIGHTING!"

All fighting came to a stand still. Rattrap, who was just about to punch Inferno who he held in a head lock looked up. "Huh?" he said. He spotted the girl hanging onto Megatron, weighing his right arm down. "Yume! What are ya doin?!"

"I'm stopping this fight!" she called out, still hugging the limb of her enemy. "This is not the time or place for a war! It's Christmas! Peace on Earth. Good will to men!"

"What in the Pit are you talking about, human?" Megatron demanded, glaring down at the girl with the big gray eyes. "That's not what Christmas is!"

She gave him a challenging look. "How would _you_ know?" she demanded. "Do you even know what Christmas is?"

"Of course I do. It's a plot the Maximals cooked up to defeat me, yes," Megatron replied.

"You are wrong," she told him in a corrective voice.

Megatron glared at her. He hated being corrected, especially by wimpy human girls. "What do you mean I'm wrong?"

"The Maximals know about as much about it as you do," she informed him. "Maybe a little more but only because I told them."

"And you think _you_ know what it is?"

"_I know _what it is."

"Oh really?" Megatron demanded. "Then_ tell _me; what is this Christmas?"

She sighed. She would once again have to explain it. She took a moment to think then began to explain.

_ A half hour later_

"What?!" Megatron stared down at Yume who had just finished explaining Christmas to him. "_That's_ what Christmas is?"

She nodded, dead serious so he wouldn't think she was joking. "Yes," she replied. "_That_ is what Christmas is. Do you understand now?"

"Not really, no," Megatron told her.

She sighed, shaking her head. "You robots," she muttered. "You all think you're so smart yet you can't even understand something as simple as Christmas."

"So it's_ not _a plot?"

"No."

Megatron looked at the Maximal's. "It's_ not _a plot?"

"No," Optimus replied. "That's what we've been trying to tell you."

"Then why was she stealing things from our base?" Megatron demanded, glaring down at the girl.

"It's a surprise," she told him. "I wanted to surprise you all with something."

"And that would be...?"

She shivered and rubbed her arms. "It's getting cold out," she said. "Can we all go into the base now? I'll explain in there."

Megatron hesitated. For all he knew this could be a trap. He glanced over at Waspinator and Terrorsaur. They were giving him looks that said otherwise. He shrugged. "Oh, all right," he conceeded. He pointed his tail shield thing at the girl. "But if this is a trick you'll be the first to go."

She shrugged as well, raising her hands, palm up. "Whatever you say..."

* * *

"Huh?" Cheetor exclaimed when everyone was in the Maximal base and he saw the tree. 'Where did those boxes come from?"

"I put them there," Yume told him. "The tree didn't look right without them."

He looked down at her. "But what are they for?" he asked.

"To open," she replied, smiling at his curiousity. "They're called 'Christmas presents'. Their sole purpose in life is to be set under a tree and wait for someone to open them on Christmas morning."

"When is that?"

The girl glanced over at the computer. The clock told her it was almost midnight. "About now," she told him.

"But _who_ are they for?"

"You," she replied.

"Really?"

"At least one of them is," she replied. "You have to find your name." she looked at the Maximals and the Predacons. Each one of them was staring at the boxes under the tree. "That goes for the rest of you."

"Can we open them now?" Cheetor wanted to know.

"Sure," she said, shrugging. "Go right ahead."

"Ultra gear!" he exclaimed running toward the tree.

"Waspinator wants gift!" Waspinator exclaimed, only a few steps behind the cheetah.

The others looked at each other for a moment then soon joined them, all except for Megatron. He grabbed the girl by the shoulder and spun her around. "Where is my duck?" he demanded.

She smiled up at him, knowing he couldn't do anything to her while they were in the Maximal base. "You'll get it back soon," she told him.

"I want it back _now_," he hissed.

She shoved his hand off of her. "Wait a few minutes," she ordered. "Try to be patient. I didn't hurt it. I promise you you'll get it back in one piece."

"I'd _better_."

"You will," she promised. "Just be patient." she gestured toward the tree. "Don't you want to open your present?"

"Not until you give me my duck back," he told her.

"You'll get it back later," she told him more firmly. "Don't worry about Mr. Squeakers." she gestured toward the tree again. "Go on. Get your gift."

"All right," he snapped then stalked toward the tree.

By then the others had already gotten their gifts and gave him room as he neared the tree. Yume stood back, watching the robots open their gifts. She hadn't been sure what to give everyone so she had had to take guesses. She just hoped that all of them would like the gifts. _If they don't... I don't know what to say. I worked so hard on them. _she pushed the thought out of her mind as Cheetor tore open the present. He stared at the gift for a moment then a smile crossed his face. He looked up at the girl and smiled at her. She smiled back, relieved that at least one person liked their gift. But of course Cheetor was the easiest transformer to give a gift to. He was a little like the teenage boys at her school only a robot.

_**Note: I couldn't think of any gifts to give these guys that I could write down. Gifts for robots are complicated, especially with limited resources. I'm very sorry. You can just use your imagination to figure out what they have by their personalities. If I can think of what would be good for them I might add it later. **_

Within minutes all the presents were open and everyone had given them a once over. So far they all looked satisfied. Optimus walked over to her, his gift in hand. "This is a surprise," he told her. "Thank you for the gifts. I'm sorry we don't have anything to give you."

'That's okay," she told him. "You already have."

"We have?" he looked confused.

She gestured around herself as she explained. "You finished decorating. You cut down a tree and brought it here. You're all together and you're not fighting," she explained. "This makes a wonderful present. I couldn't ask for anything more."

"Well... you're welcome then," he said.

She just smiled. "Merry Christmas," she said.

"Uh, Merry Christmas."

Just then Megatron butted in. He also held his present but set it on the computer console behind her so he could gesture. "Yes," he said. "Merry Christmas and all that." he leaned toward her. "Now that I've opened my present I would like my duck back now."

She looked up at him. His impatient expression was amusing. She'd never seen him so desperate to get something back. "Just a minute," she told him. "It's not time yet."

"What do you mean it's not time yet?" he demanded.

"Just like I said," she replied. "Besides you didn't even eaten any of the food."

"What food?"

"ENERGON!" Waspinator exclaimed then, discovering the energon hidden under the sheet covering the oval table.

She grinned at Megatron. "_That_food."

Optimus gaped at the energon cubes then her. "What... how..?" he began.

She put a finger to her lips. "That's a secret," she replied. "It's Christmas. Christmas isn't the time for questiona." she pointed at the table. "You'd better get some before Waspinator hogs it all."

"Stop stalling," Megatron said irritated. "Just give me back my duck!"

"Oh all right," she said, reaching into her pack and taking it out. "Here." she held the duck out to him.

Megatron stared at the duck in her hand. It was squeaky clean and it looked like it had been repainted. "I-you," he began.

"Merry Christmas," she said. "I had him cleaned for you."

He took the duck without a word and headed over to the table where Cheetor and Waspinator were having an energon eating contest. Yume hadn't been expecting a thank you from him anyway so the lack of thanks didn't bother her, much. She would have welcomed a thanks but since she wasn't getting one she didn't dwell on it. Instead she stood back and watched the Maximals and Predacons enjoying their first Christmas. That was enough for now.

Truth was, Megatron was overwhelmed by her doing such a thing he had no idea what to say to her.

_I'm glad this didn't turn out the way I thought it would, _she said to herself. _It's nice seeing them all being peaceful for a change. I know it won't last longer than tomarrow but while it's going on I can enjoy it while it lasts..._

About that time Waspinator, high on energon, broke into a song. "DECK THE HALLS WITH BOUGHS OF HOLLY, FALALALAA!"

"Ah!" Rattrap exclaimed, clapping his hand over his ears. "Make him_ stop_!"

Just then Cheetor, equally high, joined in. "Tis the season to be jolly, falalallaaaaa!" he and Waspinator draped their arms across each other's shoulders and sang together. "Don We now our gay appearal falallalaallala! LA LA LA!"

"MAKE THEM BOTH STOP!" Rattrap shouted.

"There's no need for that," Yume said. "I think they sound pretty good."

She walked forward, joining into the sound. "While we sing our yuletide carol. Falalallaala la la la la."

It didn't take the others long to catch on and soon everyone, including Dinobot were singing along. Yume never remembered feeling this happy on Christmas. there was something different about that year, aside from the fact that she wasn't spending it with her family but with robots. _This is the best Christmas ever. _

**THE END**

_A/N_

_Well that's it. I hope you liked the ending. I thought I'd never be able to finish this in time. I hope you liked the story. I know they might have been OOC at some parts but it was kinda needed. Sorry. _

_Merry Christmas!_


End file.
